Synopsis

diff [-c M | -r N[:M]] [TARGET[@REV]...]

diff [-r N[:M]] --old=OLD-TGT[@OLDREV] [--new=NEW-TGT[@NEWREV]] [PATH...]

diff OLD-URL[@OLDREV] NEW-URL[@NEWREV]

Description

Display the differences between two paths. The ways you can use svn diff are:

Use just svn diff'to display local modifications in a working copy.

Display the changes made to TARGETs as they are seen in REV between two revisions. TARGETs may be all working copy paths or all URLs. If TARGETs are working copy paths, N defaults to BASE and M to the working copy; if URLs, N must be specified and M defaults to HEAD. The “-c M” option is equivalent to “-r N:M” where N = M-1. Using “-c -M” does the reverse: “-r M:N” where N = M-1.

Display the differences between OLD-TGT as it was seen in OLDREV and NEW-TGT as it was seen ain NEWREV. PATHs, if given, are relative to OLD-TGT and NEW-TGT and restrict the output to differences for those paths. OLD-TGT and NEW-TGT may be working copy paths or URL[@REV]. NEW-TGT defaults to OLD-TGT if not specified. “-r N” makes OLDREV default to N, -r N:M makes OLDREV default to N and NEWREV default to M.

Shorthand for svn diff --old=OLD-URL[@OLDREV] --new=NEW-URL[@NEWREV]

svn diff -r N:M URL is shorthand for svn diff -r N:M --old=URL --new=URL.

svn diff [-r N[:M]] URL1[@N] URL2[@M] is shorthand for svn diff [-r N[:M]] --old=URL1 --new=URL2.

If TARGET is a URL, then revs N and M can be given either via the --revision or by using “@” notation as described earlier.

If TARGET is a working copy path, then the --revision option means:

If the alternate syntax is used, the server compares URL1 and URL2 at revisions N and M respectively. If either N or M are omitted, a value of HEAD is assumed.

By default, svn diff ignores the ancestry of files and merely compares the contents of the two files being compared. If you use --notice-ancestry, the ancestry of the paths in question will be taken into consideration when comparing revisions (that is, if you run svn diff on two files with identical contents but different ancestry you will see the entire contents of the file as having been removed and added again).

Alternate Names

di

Changes

Nothing

Accesses Repository

For obtaining differences against anything but BASE revision in your working copy

Options

--revision (-r) ARG
--change (-c) ARG
--old ARG
--new ARG
--non-recursive (-N)
--diff-cmd CMD
--extensions (-x) "ARGS"
--no-diff-deleted
--notice-ancestry
--summarize
--force
--username USER
--password PASS
--no-auth-cache
--non-interactive
--config-dir DIR

Examples

Compare BASE and your working copy (one of the most popular uses of svn diff):

$ svn diff COMMITTERS 
Index: COMMITTERS
===================================================================
--- COMMITTERS	(revision 4404)
+++ COMMITTERS	(working copy)

See what changed in the file COMMITTERS revision 9115:

$ svn diff -c 9115 COMMITTERS 
Index: COMMITTERS
===================================================================
--- COMMITTERS	(revision 3900)
+++ COMMITTERS	(working copy)

See how your working copy's modifications compare against an older revision:

$ svn diff -r 3900 COMMITTERS 
Index: COMMITTERS
===================================================================
--- COMMITTERS	(revision 3900)
+++ COMMITTERS	(working copy)

Compare revision 3000 to revision 3500 using “@” syntax:

$ svn diff http://svn.collab.net/repos/svn/trunk/COMMITTERS@3000 http://svn.collab.net/repos/svn/trunk/COMMITTERS@3500
Index: COMMITTERS
===================================================================
--- COMMITTERS	(revision 3000)
+++ COMMITTERS	(revision 3500)
…

Compare revision 3000 to revision 3500 using range notation (you only pass the one URL in this case):

$ svn diff -r 3000:3500 http://svn.collab.net/repos/svn/trunk/COMMITTERS
Index: COMMITTERS
===================================================================
--- COMMITTERS	(revision 3000)
+++ COMMITTERS	(revision 3500)

Compare revision 3000 to revision 3500 of all files in trunk using range notation:

$ svn diff -r 3000:3500 http://svn.collab.net/repos/svn/trunk
          

Compare revision 3000 to revision 3500 of only three files in trunk using range notation:

$ svn diff -r 3000:3500 --old http://svn.collab.net/repos/svn/trunk COMMITTERS README HACKING
          

If you have a working copy, you can obtain the differences without typing in the long URLs:

$ svn diff -r 3000:3500 COMMITTERS 
Index: COMMITTERS
===================================================================
--- COMMITTERS	(revision 3000)
+++ COMMITTERS	(revision 3500)

Use --diff-cmd CMD -x to pass arguments directly to the external diff program

$ svn diff --diff-cmd /usr/bin/diff -x "-i -b" COMMITTERS 
Index: COMMITTERS
===================================================================
0a1,2
> This is a test
>